Easton Pop Warner goes on despite EEE threat

Friday

Practice went on as usual for the community’s Pop Warner program despite concerns of a “critical” risk level of Eastern equine encephalitis.

Practice went on as usual for the community’s Pop Warner program despite concerns of a “critical” risk level of Eastern equine encephalitis.

Thursday night more than 300 Easton youths showed up for practice at Southeastern Regional Vocational Technical High School.

“There have been no issues with a parent saying, ‘I’m not sending my kids because of EEE,’” said Easton Pop Warner President Keith Goodwin. “They see that we are adhering to the rules.”

The state Department of Public Health increased the risk level from “high” to “critical” in Easton and surrounding communities on Tuesday and announced that they are planning another round of aerial spraying.

The DPH has encouraged communities to cancel outdoor evening activities to protect residents from exposure because mosquitoes are most active after dusk.

Goodwin said practices, which are Monday through Friday, originally started at 5:45 p.m. and went until 8 p.m. but the town gave them guidelines to be off the field one hour before dusk so practices were moved to 5 to 7 p.m.

“They took a lot of precautions to let parents know and make sure we’re off by dusk,” said Tony Moore, parent of a Pop Warner football player. “It’s OK as long as there is plenty of protection,” he said as he covered his son in bug spray.

Parents were notified by email on Thursday by the program to be aware of the EEE.

Goodwin said coaches are not allowed to spray bug spray on the kids because of a new rule in Pop Warner.

The parking lot was full of parents spraying their children, and themselves, from head to toe with bug spray before practice.

“You have to think about (EEE) and we bring bug spray everywhere but I’m not going to let my kids miss out on summer because of it,” said Eileen Flaherty, mother of a football player.

Tom Holmes, an assistant coach of the mighty mite team, said most parents are nervous about EEE but he didn’t think too many would miss practice, including his son.

But his own daughter, who doesn’t participate and usually comes to watch all the practices, wasn’t there on Thursday.

“She is not coming tonight like she usually would because why have her exposed to something if she doesn’t have to,” said Holmes.

Goodwin said canceling practice and even scaling back puts the kids at a disadvantage because it affects their preparedness to play against other kids who have had more practice because they didn’t have EEE concerns.

“It’s tough but we’re not going to put the kids at risk for any type of danger,” said Goodwin, whose own son was out practicing.

The Easton Board of Health is currently looking for the power to issue bans on outdoor activities after dusk because right now it can only make recommendations.

The board also wants to be able to issue fines for up to $1,000 for not complying with after-dark restrictions. A public hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Sept 4.

“It doesn’t need to get there,” said Goodwin of the outdoor ban. “But if that’s what we have to do, we’ll do it. We’re talking about kids’ safety here.”

Erin Shannon may be reached at eshannon@enterprisenews.com or follow her on Twitter at @Erin_Enterprise.